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Perk » What Are Points and How Do They Work?

What Are Points and How Do They Work?

So…What Are Perk Points?

An example of a Perk reward email.

Points are Perk‘s virtual currency and are earned by interacting with Perk. You can earn points by shopping at select retailers, watching videos (my favorite), using Perk’s search engine, using the Perk mobile browser and by doing special offers and tasks.

Points can be turned in for rewards of various types and at various dollar values (my favorite is the $5.00 Amazon gift card, but there are many others). Each activity you do earns you a number of points: a video might reward 4 points, playing a game might reward 100, and trying a free offer might reward you with 1200 or more points.

Each point is worth $0.001, so $1.00 costs 1000 points. Once you’ve earned enough points for a given reward, you simply request that reward and Perk sends you an email when its ready to be collected.

Shopping

Shopping is my least favorite way to earn points on Perk because it requires the spending of real world money in order to earn. In this way, shopping as a means of earning points resembles a credit card or other loyalty rewards program. Still, if you’re going to buy something anyway, earning points can offset the cost of the item. If you then spend those points on a reward, you’ve got some extra spending cash – but it’s not really earning as much as it is subsidizing.

There are some additional benefits to shopping on Perk. Since you’re not paying through Perk, but using whatever payment method you normally do online, you can aggregate your Perk discount with any other discount or cash back you might earn while you normally shop. For example, I have a Target REDCard. When I use that card to shop at Target, I get 5% discount on each purchase. If I go to Target through Perk and use my REDCard, I get the 5% discount from Target and 5 points per dollar on Perk ($0.005 per each $1.00 spent). This means effectively I’ve increased my discount from $0.05 to $0.055 per $1.00 spent at Target.

This might not seem like a lot, but it can add up. I average about $2000 a year spent at Target. If I only use my REDCard I save $100. If I shop through Perk and use my REDCard, I save an extra $10. As they say, a penny saved is a penny earned!

Shopping on Perk.com means you can subsidize your purchases.

You can see the full list of merchants you can earn Perk points at here. So long as you’re not buying things you normally wouldn’t buy, then I count earning points by shopping through Perk to be passive – whether it’s income or not depends on what you do with it (I invest my points, for example, and earn interest and dividends on the money, which IS income).

Perk Search Engine

Earning through Perk’s search function is easy. Each search query runs a random number generator and if the generator produces the proper number, the query is rewarded with a point or two (sometimes searching enters you into a sweepstakes but that is covered in another article).

It’s not a big reward for changing your internet search habits.

Perk search results are provided by Blekko, which is not as good as Google, but it is passive if you’re not searching more than you normally would just in order to earn points.

Invite Friends

When you invite friends, they sign up, and redeem a reward, you will be awarded with 500 points, or $0.50 (it’s something, but Swagbucks’ and InstaGC’s referral system is better – why not do all of them, is what I say).

Perk Mobile Browser

The Perk browser allows you to integrate many of the methods of earning using the Perk service. The Perk browser is based on Google Chrome and rewards you for surfing, shopping, and, of course, searching.

Special Offers and Tasks

These vary from signing up for free trials of privacy software to visiting sites to playing games. These offers and tasks are provided by third party vendors and you are paid by Perk. Generally, these require some form of recurring subscription charged directly to a credit or bank card, but which can be cancelled before the first monthly payment is due.

They are very profitable, but make sure to keep an eye on your subscriptions and cancel them before the first monthly payment!